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She blogs, she cooks, she drinks coffee. Here it is, the one the only; Sneh Roy! Sneh is the brains, eyes and fingers behind the website “Little Box of Ideas” which is steadily rising into one of the most popular design blogs in the whole net. She offers at her site very high quality freebies and has featured interviews with relevant personalities of the design world as logo Guru Jacob Cass and illustrator Von Glitschka. She is also behind the curtain of the fabulous cooking blog “Gel’s Kitchen” and the famous “Stars we love“ celebrity site. Her vibrant and contemporary style are real hooks at first. But either as a client or a as a friend, what really keeps you hanging to her is her warmth and honesty.

We meet tons of people in the course of a lifetime. And if you really think about it, it is rare if someone leaves and impression that lasts more than an hour. Don’t take me wrong here, I don’t want to sound like I’m papa scrooge, it’s just something I believe is worth giving it a thought. The point I’m trying to make with all this babbling, is that I really wish half the people I meet daily made such an impression on me as Sneh. And I know many of you readers will be touched by her kind vibe too. A Special person indeed, and a real pleasure to interview.

1. Who is Sneh Roy?

The Sneh Roy you ask about is a designer, brand creator, content developer, blogger, photographer, writer, cook, illustrator, friend, obsessive thinker, compulsive coffee drinker, movie addict, energizer bunny, event planner and baker all wrapped up in a supermom cape that comes in handy to zoom off from one crisis to another, after resolving it of course. And this person sounds suspiciously very much like me.

2. You seem to do everything, from web design and corporate identity to oil painting. How do you manage to maintain a high level of quality throughout all your work without sacrificing sanity? Do you recommend multitasking to aspiring designers?

I haven’t done oil painting in almost 18 years, but I would love to again. I believe everyone has a method to their madness, but it is the madness that is very important. If you are passionate about something and it has to pass your own high standards, you will eventually end up losing sanity in a bid to achieve perfection. As for me, I try my best to produce work of the highest quality limited only by my capabilities. I don’t take on a lot of work because I believe in quality over quantity. I would definitely recommend multitasking to aspiring designers. Especially if you plan to work for yourself, do everything you could lay your hands on, whether it is researching “billing and invoicing” for your future projects or comparing real estate rental rates for an office you might want to rent in 5 years, everything counts and the more you do, the more aware you will be. If you are a designer, you are a creative. A creative can usually adapt to almost any kind of art. Dabble in something that is not your forte and it will only make you grow as a designer.

3. Imagine I’m a 20 year old novice designer/artist wanting to build an online design company. In your experience, what should be the first step to take?

Research. One of the fundamental aspects of any kind of job is research because it tells you what is out there, what your business demographics might be, what is not out there, what you need to do, what you should definitely avoid and how you should do it. Researching for an online design company is synonymous with a designer sketching out ideas before a logo design or website layout project. It helps you clear your head and gives your thoughts and ideas a definite direction. So if you want to start a company, google things, browse websites, blogs, other businesses online, get out of your chair and home, meet people, ask questions, evaluate the worth of the idea you are trying to fly.

4. Stumble upon, tweeter, dig… Do we really need them? Aren’t we saturating readers with all those possibilities?

Do we really need 200 channels or more on television? That novelty doesn’t exist here in Australia but definitely in most countries in the world. You don’t really need them but having them is nice, makes life easier and people get choices. As a broadcaster of design news for example, having stumble Upon, Digg, Twitter etc gives you all these wonderful different mediums to get your message across. Readers are smart, they find one or two services they like and stick to them, thereby not being bombarded with multiple instances of the same news. If a person is on Twitter, he might not be an active Digg user, but by channeling information through all the channels, we reach out to many more people which we might have otherwise missed out on if all these different services and applications wouldn’nt have been there.

5. You’ve had some big accomplishments as having your Gel’s Kitchen Logo as Logo of the month on “LogoMoose”. How has this boosted your career? Does that translate into your bank account?

It helps to get the word out there. Being featured on a website generates buzz for your work and it is a wonderful way of getting exposure for your talents. Unfortunately it only lasts about as long as the feature. With the massive amounts of websites and creative people on the internet, prospective clients have a lot of choice and your two minute of fame usually lasts only for two minutes. I have been thrilled and honored to be featured on websites for my logos. I started logo designing only 9 months ago and the response from the community has been fabulous. No, it doesn’t necessarily translate into my bank account.

6. Of all the things that you do, which one do you enjoy the most? Painting? Cooking? Drinking coffee?

Creating something from scratch and drinking coffee would be the two most enjoyable things for me. When I say creating something from scratch, it means laying out 5 ingredients on the table and inventing a recipe for it or digging out concrete in the yard, leveling the ground, laying out pebbles and paving and creating a beautiful zen-style seating or building a series of 21 characters and developing stories for each of them. And then there is coffee, it calms me, it charges me. I think I have coffee in my veins, not blood.

7. The phrase on your website; “Logos need heart, and Branding needs soul” caught my attention immediately. Can you elaborate for us a bit more on that?

A logo is a very personal aspect of design. It provokes emotions in people like no other form of design, especially for the ones involved because it defines you. It defines the person designing a logo and the person who is having it designed. Just like your name. I wrote that phrase because I firmly believe that Logo design needs to be very heartfelt for it to be effective. And when I am creating a brand for someone, I get into it, very involved and all branding needs a soul, a sense of righteousness and responsibility to be able to draw everyone and everything to it.

8. Are all your projects self sustainable? (Gel’s Kitchen, LBOI, stars we love)

Those 3 are and there are 2 more in the works.

9. Can you tell us about your other projects? What is your motivation behind them? To tell you the truth I’m really intrigued with the celebrity site. Why did you do that one?

We are in the middle of the 10 year Starswelove.com relaunch and hope to go live with the new site before the year ends. 12 years ago Nick [then boyfriend, now husband] and I were browsing for some celebrity pictures and were surprised to see the lack of good celebrity sites out there. So we decided to start our own. Moving from geocities to everyone.net and eventually sub-renting server space and then our own dedicated servers, we made a lot of fans happy. In 2004 at its peak, the website was getting 6 million hits a month with almost 250,000 unique visitors. Then we got really busy and sadly neglected it. This year was its 10th year and we decided to revive it. It is going to be a fantastic experience for movies and celebrity fans with a lot of interactivity, information and graphics.The other 2 projects are hush hush at the moment with one having something to do with illustrations.

10. Three wishes for 2010. Our blog has magical powers you know…

A-Haa. Here comes the 3 genie! I knew you were saving the best for last. World Peace, World Peace, World Peace :)Thanks for the kind words and the interview. It was a pleasure.